When New York Mets ace Pedro Martinez came out of last night's game in Pittsburgh after only three ineffective innings and 68 pitches, and with his team losing 4-0, he sat down at the end of the dugout bench and held his face in his hands, his shoulders shaking.
“Is he crying?” blurted out Mets announcer Keith Hernandez. Then, thinking better of it, Hernandez went silent.
It has been a rough season for the future Hall of Famer. The 34-year-old righthander was sidelined for much of spring training with a toe injury. Due to a strained right calf, he hadn’t started a game since August 14. And earlier, due to a freak hip injury, he had missed a month wrapped around the All-Star break. Thus his record was only 9-5 coming into last night’s game, in which the Mets had the opportunity to clinch the NL East Division title with a win or a Philadelphia loss.
But then, as a young player in the early 1990s’ Dodgers organization, Martinez’ frail little body (5’10” and maybe 160 lbs.) was considered inadequate to the rigors of being a big league starting pitcher — which it was — and thus the Dodgers used him as reliever, before unloading him to the Montreal Expos. You might say that Pedro Martinez has been defying nature ever since.
The hip injury came during a game in which Martinez donned a long sleeve shirt under his jersey. The home plate umpire decided the shirt was too long, and ordered Martinez to go into the clubhouse and cut the sleeves. While following the ump’s orders, Martinez slipped on the clubhouse floor. Thereafter, he pitched a few ineffective starts, before being sat down, and getting treatment for the hip.
Note that “freak” injuries and aging pitchers (see also: aging quarterbacks) go together. And Pedro is an old 34. In other words, those “freak” injuries aren’t freaky, but rather signs of a body that is breaking down after over 2600 innings on the mound. After the game, Mets announcer Gary Cohen observed, “It’s been one thing after another this year for Pedro: The toe, the hip, the calf.”
One of the Mets announcers had just observed that Martinez had “the weight of the franchise on his shoulders.” Mets skipper Willie Randolph had just announced that Martinez would be the Game 1 starter in the playoffs.
Article comments
1 - Matthew T. Sussman
Pound for pound the toughest pitcher in history then?
2 - Nicholas Stix
Yes! Now, that's a line worth stealing!
3 - Michael J. West
Truth is, I am often surprised that he's made it as far as he has. Not because he's not great--he is certainly that--but because he's had so many major injuries that have slowly deteriorated his power pitching.
4 - Nicholas Stix
I have never seen a professional adapt as well to the deterioration of his physical abilities. He's the world's greatest junkball pitcher.
Typically, when a power pitcher's fastball deserts him (e.g., Jim Lonborg), his strikeout ratio collapses. While Martinez' strikeout ratio has certainly dropped from its high of 13 per nine innings with Boston, with the Mets he has still managed to strike out 8-9 batters per nine innings, which has to be some sort of record for a junkball pitcher whose "fastball" sometimes has less velocity than other pitchers' change-up.
5 - Michael J. West
In fact, last I heard his fastball was an average of something like...86 mph?
What Martinez has done is one of the rarest old-dog/new-trick schemes in pitching. As he's less able to throw hard, he's become a craftsman pitcher: it's now about technique and finesse. The only other pitcher I can think of who managed to master the craft when injuries sapped his power is Sandy Koufax--who, I might add, is probably second to Pedro in adapting to his injuries (except that they ended his career much faster).
All of which is to say, agreed on power pitchers losing their K's when the power deserts them.